At the Close of the Day, Pennsylvania 7 - 1911

This photograph, taken by Lewis Hine, shows a group of coal miners emerging from a Pennsylvania mine at the end of their workday. I can almost feel the weight of the air they’re breathing. The monochrome palette—ranging from deep blacks to murky grays—captures a sense of constriction. I imagine Hine, with his camera, down there in the dark. How did he feel, looking through the lens at these workers? What was the air like? What conversations did they have? The figures are closely packed together. There’s a beautiful tension between the individual and the collective, the way each miner carries their own light, yet they move as one mass. I wonder about the material reality of their lives; the grit under their fingernails, the weight of their shared experience. Hine’s photographs remind us of the shared social fabric that connects us all, and the importance of seeing and understanding each other. The miners emerge, and we look on.